Water-closet tank



(No Model.)

P. HARVEY.

WATER oLosET TANK.

N0. 516,01. Patented Mar. 6, 1894.

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UNITED STATES FFiCE.

PATRICKAHARVEY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

WATER-c Los ET TANK.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent lo. 516,01 1, dated March Application led December 31, l 892.

. 'in a closed portion of the tank, causing a partial vacuum therein, into which the air from the inter-trap space of the closet is drawn, and a further purpose of the invention is to provide improved meansfor preventing such air thus drawn from the closet escaping from the tank into the room; and, on the contrary, to cause that air to be forced back into the closet and beyond the water seals thereof, so that it may pass out through any Ventilating `pipe with which the sewer or closet may be provided.

Figure 1 is a vertical section through a tank embodying my improvements and through a closet bowl to which it may be connected. The closet bowl in this application is identical with that shown in mypendin g application, Serial No. 547,781, and has the same action, and I show it here to illustrate that action in conjunction with the tank which contributes to it. Fig. 2 is a section at the line 2-2 on Fig. 1.

A is the tank.

B is the closet xture; B', the lushingpipe leading from the tank to the closet; B2, the air pipe leading from the closet to the tank.

O is the supply pipe controlled by the usual doat C', connected to its valve.

D is the ushing valve, or valve which controis the outflow from the tank to flush the closet. It has, connected with it and forming, in a certain sense, a part of it, a siphon comprising an inner tubular portion E', and an outer tubular portion or inverted cup or cap E2, these two portions being rigidly connected together in any convenient way, as by the lugs e extending from the upper end of the inner tube to the top of the outer cap E2,

leaving open a free communication from the Serialllo. 456,962 (No model.)

inner to the outer ot' the tubes, over the end of the former, which is itself:` made rigid with the valve proper at the lower end of it, through which it extends and constitutes a partial means of getting the valve onto its seat by means ot the downwardly extending lug-sew, the mode of construction being, as will be understood from the drawings, to use a metal tube and to out away portions at the ends, leaving standing the portions above described as the lugs e and el". This valve is operated by alever and link connection from the upper end, where a lug c2 is provided, to which a chain or link F is attached and extends to one end of the lever G, fulcrumed on the tank and operated by a pull rod or chain G :in a familiar manner. lt will be understood that by lifting the siphon valve,-that is, the valve and the siphons connected thereto, the Water will rush down around the downwardly protruding end of the tube E', and draw the air through that tube out of the siphon and prime the latter, so that, upon the valve being seated, the Siphon will continue to draw the water from the tank and discharge it into the flushing pipe B. The distinguishing teature of my invention is the relation of these devices to others which l will now describe.

H is an inverted box which is adapted to be inserted into the tank A, its Walls extending quite near to the latter on all sides, simply because it is not necessary that the tank should be much larger than this inverted box, the"space between the walls of the two being sufficient, however, for the free movement of water, as hereinafter explained. The lower edges of the inverted box extend very nearly to the bottom of the tank, but not so as to prevent the free passage of water around its lower edges from within the inverted box to the spaces outside of it within the tank. The inverted box H has an aperture in its bottom coinciding in position with that of the siphon valve, that is, so that the entire Siphon is exposed through that opening 71..

H is a tube or thimble large enough to encompass the siphon valve and its siphons, and it is joined at its upper end to the margin of the opening it", and becomes thereby a part ot' the inverted box, so that the valve and its siphons are not hooded by the box. The thimble H extends to a point below the margin of the outer tube E2 of the siphon when the valve is off its seat,-that is to say, the thimble extends below the low water line, or line to which the tank will be evacuated by the operation of the siphon, which will break when the water reaches the lower margin of its outer tube. Preferably, also, the end of the thimble is below the level of the valve seat, so that if the tank should be evacuated independently of the Siphon, as by holding the valve open, it would still not be emptied low enough to uncover the lower edge of the thimble. On one side wall of theinverted box H, I form apocket h3, by means of the horizontal ledg'e H3 and lip H30 at the edge of it. This pocket may extend across the whole width of this end of the inverted box, so that the side walls of the same complete it. From the aperture h4 at the upper corner of the inverted box H, a duct H4, which is closed at the upper end except for its communication with said aperture, extends down into the pocket h3. This duct is in cross section quite small relatively to the area of the pocket. It is conveniently formed by a half-round partition soldered at its edges to the vertical end wall of the inverted box. The purpose of this pocket and duct are the same as that of a similar device shown in my pending application, Serial No. 347,781, above-mentioned.

The closet fixture with which this tank is intended to co-operate, but which is not essential to the performance of some of its functions, has the usual formation of a siphon closet with double traps; h3 heilig the bowl cavity, b4, the dip of the first trap, b5 the iuter-trap air space, b the dip of the second trap, hl the up-limb of the second trap, b3 the final discharge passage to the sewer, b9 the Ventilating connection leading from the crown of the second siphon. This fixture has a special feature consisting of the by-pass or airduct B4, which affords communication from the top of the inter-trap space to the up-limb of the second trap, into which it leads at the aperture Z740 a little below the water level of the second trap.

The operation of this entire structure may now be understood. it is as followsz-The closet fixture having its traps full, as illustrated in the drawings, the flushing valve being lifted and the siphon primed, the water will be dra-wn from the tank, creating a partial vacuum under the inverted box as the water level falls, and drawing the air through the air-pipe B2 out of the inter-trap space of the closet fixture into the space in the tank un der the inverted box made vacant by the outflow of water. This operation primes the siphon in the closet. WVhen the water has fallen in the tank a little belowT the level of the pocket h3, the water seal of which is of less depth than the water seal over the mouth of the aperture b4 in the closet fixture, the seal in said pocket will be broken, and the air will enter through the aperture h4, and destroy the partial vacuum or restore the equilibrium in the tank and arrest the siphonic action of the closet which will be presumed to have been sufficiently flushed while the water was falling from the high-water level of the tank to the level of the pocket, and this distance will be made such as to give the desired flushing capacity. From this point, the water flowing through the siphon E E2 constitutes the after fill or afterwash of the closet, and it will continue to fiow until it reachesthe low-water level at the lower margin of the inverted cup or hood E2 of the siphon. When this level is reached, the siphou will break, and the outflow from the tank to the closet will cease, and the supply valve being opened by the usual method,-the fall of the float attached to its valve,-tl1e tank will begin to till up, and the air therein will be forced back Athrough the air pipe B2 into the inter-trap space of the closet. This air, it will be re membered, is that which has been drawn primarily from the inter-trap space at the priming of the siphon, and subsequently from the same space during the operation of the closet. It is important that it should not be forced out into the room through either the fixture or the tank, unless special means are employed to prevent it. The means for this result in the construction shown areidentical in character with those shown in my Said former application, Serial No. 347,781, and I do not claim them in this application, but will describe their action, which is that this air, thus forced down into the inter-trapspace, finds escape from that space through the duct B1 and the aperture Z740, where it is only necessary that it force its way through the slight water seal which exists over the mouth of that aperture in the up-limb of the second trap. This water-seal, although deeper than the water-seal in the pocket h3, will be easily forced long before the water-seal at the pocket will be forced by the pressure of air in the tank, because that air pressure in the tank is exerted over the entire broad surface of water in the pocket, which is Very large relatively to the area of the duct which leads from the pocket, and which must be lowered throughout its entire broad area the entire depth of the seal before the seal will be broken, and such depression of the broad area of the water in the pocket will raise the water in the duct which leads frornitas many times the amount of that depression as the area of the pocket is greater than the cross-area of the duct, so that a fraction of an inch of water-seal in the pocket will be sufficient to prevent the escape of water through the pocket against several inches of water-seal over the aperture Z940, and, in practice, the depth of the latter seal need not. be over an inch or two.

It will be observed that in this construction of the tank, there is no time in the normal action when there is an unsealed communication between the air under the inverted box and the outer air, so that no foul air which IOC IIO

may pass into the tank can, by any means, pass out therefrom into the room, but whatever the pressure originating in the tank which might expel it into the room, will instead expel itinto the sewer through the closet fixture. And, on the other hand, whatever pressure, originating in the sewer connections or in the closet fixture itself, tending to force gas or foul air back from the closet into the tank, will succeed in forcing it out of the latter into the room only after forcing the water level down below the margin of the inverted box, or, in particular, below the lower margin of the thimble H', which is a practical impossiblity; or forcing the general water level below the level of the pocket and forcing the water down into the pocket until it has raised a column in the duct H4 to the very top thereof, which is equally impossible under ordinary circumstances.

I claim- I. In combination with a siphon closet and the air pipe leading from the inter-trap space thereof, a flushing tank having a closed portion in the upper part of which the air pipe terminates and an unclosed portion from which the flushing pipe leads to the closet; a siphon valve controlling access to said flushing pipe; said closed and unclosed portions communicating at the lower part below the level of the intake of the siphon: substantially as set forth.

2. In combination with the closet-bowl, the air pipe leading from the inter-trap space thereof, and a duct communicating at one end with said air pipe and the inter-trap space and at the other end with the lower trap of the closet in the discharge limb thereof, near and below the overflow level of said trap; the flushing tank having a closed portion in the upper part of which the air pipe opens,

and an open portion from which the flushing pipe leads to the closet; a siphon valve controlling access from said flushing pipe, the entire valve and Siphon being locatedinsaid unclosed portion of the tank said closed and unclosed portions communicating below the intake of the Siphon; a duct having communication at the upper end with the outer air above the overiiow level of the tank, and communicating at its lower end with the closed portion of the tank at a distance below the overflow level sufficient to afford a iiushing supply to the closet-bowl between. said levels; a pocket or trap into which said duct opens within the inclosed portion, the area of said pocket being large relatively to the cross section of the duct: substantially asand for the purpose set forth.

3. In combination with the tank, the inverted box or hood therein, having the thimbleconstituting part of the vertical wall of the inclosed chamber formed by said inverted box or hood, and opened to the outer air at the upper end and to water in the tank at the lower end, the closet bowl and the air pipe leading from the intertrap space thereof into the upper part of said inclosed chamber; the pocket h3 on the inner wall of the inverted box H, and the duct leading therefrom and communicating with the outer air above the overflow level of the tank, and the siphon valve located and operating within the thimble, the intake of its siphon being above the lowelr end of the thimble: substantially as set ort In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, in the presence of two witnesses, this 24th day of December, 1892.

PATRICK HARVEY.

Witnesses:

JEAN ELLIOTT, E. T. WRAY. 

